Photos from Pride Island

Sean Bryant, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

“NYC is a beast! It has so many different people from so many different backgrounds and cultures and identities. Stonewall is everything! I wouldn’t be able to be out and to live if it weren’t for that movement.”

Kim Smalls, Norwood, Brooklyn 

“NYC Pride is the best damn Pride in the world because it’s NYC. Do I need another reason? Nothing’s better than New York. It’s the home of Stonewall, and Stonewall means that we are still fighting to get the rights that we should’ve always had. But we’re still fighting.”

Neon Christina LaDosha, Long Island, New York

“NYC Pride is about diversity! Everyone wanna be here. Everyone comes here, parties here. It’s kinda like Mecca. And Stonewall is here. Stonewall means family. It means we’re all in this together, from the beginning.”

Mike Weeks, Harlem, Manhattan

“Nothing can match the sense of community and the magnitude of NYC Pride. The first time I went to Stonewall, just the history and the legacy that it set forth really affected me and I actually cried. It was amazing.”

David Liddell, Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan  

“The diversity here is incredible. People come from all over the world for this! And we have what we have now because of what happened at Stonewall. I always try to remember where I came from, and it all started at Stonewall. It reminds you that you have to be yourself.”

Adam Radakovich, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

“Everybody’s here from everywhere. Everybody from around the world comes to New York because they love it. It has the best energy in the world. Stonewall was revolutionary. It allowed me to be who I am. I think it’s one of those things that changed the course of the world.”

Heysha Nameri, Jamaica, Queens

“This is where Pride started. And we just do things different here. You’ll never find a bigger, better crowd, a more diverse crowd. We got freaks, geeks, weirdos, artists. We got it all here. We’re like the standard-bearer for pride.”

Andy Stewart, Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan

“This is where it began! It’s the whole reason why we’re free gay people in the United States. New York is the one place where if you ever didn’t have hope, didn’t have anyone to laugh with you, you always have a family in New York City.”

Aziza Hankins, Staten Island

“What I love is how inclusive NYC Pride is. It’s not about gay or straight. It’s about you being you. It’s 100 percent love all the time. It’s having pride in what you are, proud to be you!”

Santana Beltran, East Harlem, Manhattan

“Stonewall was one of the first places I ever visited when I moved to NYC from South Carolina. New York is such a big city and has such a high population of LGBT people; it allows us to have this incredible pride.”

Stephen Mittel, Austin, Texas 

“Stonewall is the place where people took a stand. They said, ‘We’re not gonna take it anymore!’”  
  
_Discover all there is to see and do during the event by visiting our guide to [NYC Pride](/pride)._

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Check out the faces and stories at Pride Island, one of NYC Pride’s marquee events.